Tag: Alice Cooper

Tune in to see your host with the most present in the Best Rock Album category–alongside Katy Perry! Yes, Beauty and the Beast. (Alice being the Beauty, of course!) Bands in the category are AC/DC, Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, Green Day, Dave Matthews Band and U2!

Coop’s a Clapton fan, but doesn’t AC/DC gotta win this one?

Tune in to the Grammys this Sunday, January 31st at 8 p. m. on CBS, and your favorite radio mutant, Alice Cooper (and Katy Perry!) will tell you who wins… and look great doing it!

2009 was a pretty good year for Kip Winger. He released not one, but two great CDs with Blackwood Creek and Winger’s Karma, he was honored by the U.S. Government, and recently had one of his compositions performed by the Tucson Symphony. Kip took a few minutes to talk with Hard Rock Hideout about his current projects, as well as little of the history of his music career. Enjoy!

HRH: I recently listened to the Blackwood Creek CD, and thought it had a very cool 70’s kind of vibe to it.. What you can you tell us about your band Blackwood Creek.

Kip Winger: That is exactly it. We were together in the 70’s. When we got back together to jam, it sounds like the 70’s basically. My oldest brother Paul was in and out of the band. The main guitar player was Peter Fletcher. He was my first song writing partner. We just got back together. We were really just going to jam, but some of the stuff came out really cool, so I decided to finish making the album. It has an updated feel, but it sounds a lot like what we used to sound like when we were playing Grand Funk and stuff. We worked on it on for a while in the off time of Winger. I thought it sounded unique enough and the chemistry was still there to do the record.

HRH: Are you going to play live with Blackwood Creek?

Kip Winger: We don’t know what our touring schedule is. We have to work around Winger. We are trying to figure that out right now. We will probably play at some point.

HRH: Let me ask you a couple of questions about your new CD Karma. This record seems much heavier than the previous Winger albums. Was it your intention to record a heavier record?

Kip Winger: It is actually the same as all of our other records. I just turned the guitars up basically. Honestly, Reb and I take the same approach on everything we do. We write riff oriented tunes. If you listen to any of them, you will hear a guitar riff, we will write the melody over them. I recorded the guitars a little bit different this time. I really wanted to crank them in the mix and give them more of an edge. I think this is what is working in our favor for the heavier kind of vibe. It seems like a moot point, but I used a different microphone on my voice that I nomally use. It has a much grittier sound to it. I really was happy with the way it came out. This album and Pull is really what the band sounds like. If you go see us live, it really sounds a lot like Karma. I was really wanting to do an up tempo heavy record for us to play live. A lot of our songs are in the mid tempo range, and doesn’t rock the house as much as I would have liked. Now we can do four of five tunes from the new record. It is a much more up set, and it really is more representative of who we are as a live band.

HRH: I noticed that PJ had some song writing credits on both the Karma and Blackwood Creek albums. What was the song writing process like for the records?

Kip Winger: It is really simple. If I am stuck for lyrics, I will hand it to my wife and ask her to finish the songs from me. She is an amazing song writer. She knows the exact elements I need to finish a song. She wrote “Supernova”. I will handle her the lyrics when I am stumped. I passed out the lyrics to a few guys on this. Donnie Purnell from Kix, and Bobby Huff is a song writer here in Nashville, and is really talented. I think the result is really good. I think it is the best elements of the band combined. I think in many ways it is our best album just in terms of who we really are. We have had a lot of songs that I am really proud of. I think people forget that we have written a lot of decent songs.

HRH: How did Reb Beach have time to do this album with all of the time he spent in Whitesnake in 2008 – 2009?

Kip Winger: We wrote the ten songs in ten days. Reb came back to do rhythms, and then came back to do solos. Reb spent about a month on it. It took me about eight months to finish it.

HRH: What are your touring plans for the album?

Kip Winger: Yeah, we just got back from Europe. We are going back in March. We are hoping to get some summer stuff happening in the States soon.

HRH: I noticed on your touring schedule that your music”Ghosts” is going to be performed by the San Francisco Ballet in February. What can you tell me about that?

Kip Winger: I have been working on classical music my whole life and finally wrote a big piece of music. It was performed by the Tucson Symphony last month and now. The premiere will be in February, and their will be seven performances of that. You can see it on the website at SanFrancisco Ballet.org.

HRH: You have to be pretty excited about that.

Kip Winger: This is the hugest thing in my life. I have been working on that for years. I am really excited about it.

HRH: I watched the trailer for the movie Four Months, and I immediately recognized your voice in the song they are playing on the trailer.

Kip Winger: Yeah, I don’t really have anything to do with that movie. They are using “Nothing” (from Kip’s solo album, From The Moon To the Sun) on the trailer. They bought the rights to use the song in the movie. It looks cool.

HRH: Back in February you were honored by the U.S. Government with a plaque and a flag for your song “Blue Suede Shoes”. What is your feeling about that? That had to be a pretty incredible experience.

Kip Winger: It was absolutely amazing. I was initially writing it from the idea of a soldiers perspective. Blue Suede Shoes is a song why someone would enlist. Not the stupid version, the real heartfelt version of why. Certain people who I have talked to applying it on a military basis over the years have talked to me about their experience. I did a TV show called Legends & Lyrics, and they presented that to me on that show. It was a great honor and very humbling.

HRH: Do you feel like this was a little vindication against all of the people that were targeting Winger in the 90’s? It seems like Winger was the butt of a bunch of bad jokes., from the Beavis & Butthead show etc. This seems to have taken you full circle.

Kip Winger: Music was always the thing that I was concentrating doing the best job I could do. The Beavis & Butthead show & Metallica, they all took the first punch. Whatever. I have never met any of them. My whole world has been to write better music. Having a ballet done by the San Francisco ballet, or getting an award by the U.S. Government, I guess yes it is vindicating. It is all a by product of me trying to do what I do best, which is write music. I am not writing music to sell a t-shirt, I am writing music to write the best music I can write. What I do for myself is to try do the highest art I can do. I don’t dig the name slagging and cutting other bands down. That happened to us for whatever reason. You just deal with it. People have asked me that for twenty years. Someone should call Mike Judge and ask him why (laughs).

HRH: I have to ask you about your time with Alice Cooper. What was that experience like to go out with Alice on tour and to play on his records so early in your career?

Kip Winger: That was a dream come true as a kid. I was a big Alice Cooper fan, huge actually. I was really lucky to get that gig. That was really special. I learned a lot from him. He is an amazing celebrity. He is more than a rockstar. He has this whole world un to himself. For me I was 24, I was a waiter before that. I was very lucky. Right place at the right time. You have to give credit where credit is due. Kane Roberts was very influential in me getting that gig. I still talk to Kane a lot. I haven’t talked to Alice in a while.

HRH: What has Kane Roberts been up to? He has been out the music business for a while.

Kip Winger: He does a lot of different stuff. He is a computer artist. He has written a couple of screen plays. He is an incredibly talented dude. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met.

HRH: A few years ago you produced the album for The Mob that Reb Beach played on.

Kip Winger: Yeah, that was a fun project. They brought me in to help finish the album for them. There is some great music on that album. Dug Pinnick, he is a great singer, I love him.

HRH: Is The Mob something that you and Reb would like to revisit sometime?

Kip Winger: The record company is begging us to do another one, but I don’t think it will happen any time soon.

HRH: Where is the best place for your fans to find your new Winger and Blackwood Creek albums?

Kip Winger: 400 Best Buys just picked it up, you can also download it off of iTunes.

For the better part of the summer and fall of 2009, Damon will be returning to the Alice Cooper Band for tour dates in the U.S., Russia, Europe, and Australia. Whiskey Falls will be focusing exclusively on writing and recording and preparing to release new material in various packages throughout the year. “I’m looking forward to playing with Alice again, and am even more excited about the new material that we are writing and producing in Whiskey Falls”, says Damon. After a successful tour with The World’s Toughest Rodeo, the Whiskey Falls guys are grateful for the huge fan base they have built up and want to get their new songs out as soon as possible. Continuing to operate independently and without a major record label, WF will perform select dates throughout the year, depending on scheduling. Updates will be posted here as they come.

Courtesy of Damon Johnson.com

Check out the live video below of Alice Cooper performing School’s Out with Damon Johnson on Guitar.

Twisted Sister seemingly opened the floodgates for a new batch of hard rockin’ Christmas tunes when they released their album, “Twisted Christmas” in 2006. “We Wish You A Metal Xmas, and a HeadBanging New Year” has more hard rock and metal stars than any other Christmas compilation in history (Yes, even more than Monster Ballads Christmas from 2007). With that being said, it has to be awesome right?!

For the most part it is, and I would go so far as saying they have one upped, “Twisted Christmas” with this compilation.

First and foremost, I am a Jeff Scott Soto fan and he can do little wrong in my eyes. He helps rock out this rocking version of “We Wish You A Merry (Metal) Xmas”. My step daughter likes this one too. I caught her singing “We Wish You A Metal Christmas”. :)

You either have to love or hate Lemmy Kilmister. His rendition of “Run Rudolph Run” is pretty fun for the most part, but you know what to expect from his vocals. I have officially started a new holiday tradition by singing “Run Rudolph Run” in my best Lemmy Kilmister voice. What a great way to annoy the spouse and siblings.! :)

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” is a creepy and cool rendition of this tune. Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi make this sound like a lost Black Sabbath cut.

“Silver Bells” is one of the weaker moments on this disc. Geoff Tate’s lack of vocal fortitude really shows up badly on this song. He can’t hit the notes that this song requires, and that is a shame. He used to have an awesome voice, but it is severely lacking here.

Dug Pinnick from King’s X turns in a semi soulful version of the Little Drummer Boy. George Lynch adds some pretty tasty guitar licks to this version.

You have to love Ripper Owens. He may not be the best singer in the world, but he can really metalize Christmas songs like no one else. Steve Morse provides the tasty guitar licks on “Santa Claus is Back In Town”, and Ripper drives it home with his metal screams. I love it!

Chuck Billy destroys “Silent Night” with his death metal growl, but I think this is more tongue in cheek, than anything else. I can’t say I ever expected to hear a death/thrash metal version of “Silent Night”, but the unit of Scott Ian, Jon Donais, Chris Wyse and John Tempesta somehow manage to pull this off. The shredding on this tune is pretty awesome.

Every time I hear “Deck the Halls” I think it is Geoff Tate back for another dose. It is actually Lynch Mob’s Oni Logan. I don’t know if is just me, but his voice also sounds worse for wear here. I don’t remember him sounding anything like this in the 90’s.

RATT’s Stephen Pearcy pulls off a pretty good version of “Grandman Got Ran Over By A Reindeer”. As it turns out, Pearcy has a pretty good voice for this tune. Who would have thought that?

As a whole, I have enjoyed this CD, and have replayed this quite a bit . This is easily the best hard rock Christmas CD released in 2008. Buy it!!

HRH: I haven’t posted too many of the Answer’s updates from their blog, but this one was too cool not to share!

After L.A. we got onboard the rock’n’roll train to phoenix, Arizona.It was agreat show and when we came off stage we were greeted by someone who looked familiar and said to us,”guys that was great but you’re just getting started you need to go out there and do another hr!I’ve got another gig across the street for you if your not done yet?’,it was Alice Cooper!We’re not worthy!we talked to Alice about rock’n’roll and golf,he’s playing off 4 but at this point in time is playing alittle better than that.After the show he invited us over to Cooperstown for a few drinks.It sure was fun hanging out with Alice and next time we are hitting the course!Thanks to Alice,Danny and Ralph for taking care of us!
The next show was in san Antonio and we got to meet up with our old friends the Gaults.When you go to sxsw festival in Austin texas most of the bands stay with a family in the area and the Gaults became our surrogate family during our stay!It was great to see them and hang out in Austin for a aday or 2.On our day off in Austin we did an interview and photo shoot for French magazine rockhard and spent some time on 6th street.Its quite a different atmosphere at this time of year compared to sxsw time,alittle more relaxed.After a day off we rolled out to Houston.I cant remember much about Houston other than watching “for those about to rock” from the side of the stage and the cannons not being as loud as I was expecting,I must be going deaf,they usually take your head off!Maybe my earplugs have started working.
We had a long drive to Athens Georgia ahead of us after Houston.Tiger woods golf and flight of the conchords helped us along the way.Athens is the home of rem,drivin’n’cryin and our tour manger trey.And who did we bump into in little italy but Michael stipe,he was sat in the corner……..well maybe not but mike mills came to the show a few days later.We had dinner in a great sushi bar,shots at the 40watt and few other bars.We had a dc show in Atlanta,agreat rock’n’roll town and a great audience to play to,looking forward to going back.The we had our 1st headlining show of the tour in Athens Georgia.We had hoped to do more but it didn’t work out with all the long drives we have been doing.We have only been doing 30mins a night with acdc so there were a lot of songs we hadn’t played in a while and some new ones we have yet to play to an audience.We went into a local rehearsal room,nuci’s space,in the morning to blow the dust off some songs.Then we loaded into the 40watt.It was more like the sort of gig we are used to back home.Our set was abit longer and we played come follow me,
Demon eyes,
Walking Mat
Doctor
Never too late,
Tonight,
On and on,
Comfort Zone,
Rosalie,
Under the sky,
Encore-Dead of the night
Preachin’
It was good to be playing alonger set and after playing arenas for a few months we had almost forgotten what it was like to play a show but after a few tunes we were tearing it up like usual!After the show we indulged in double shots of patron and thin lizzies!!Thanks to the dumps and pride parade for supporting and rocking out.Look forward to seeing you guys again.Big thanks to ,nuci’s space,Rick,barrie and all at the 4owatt for making it happen.And clay enough with that george jones stuff you better know the chords to sin city next time we’re back,that’s all im saying!!
When you live on a tour bus one thing I’ve noticed is that your perception of time goes right out the window and so it goes we played charlotte yesterday and I’ll be damned if I didn’t get up at 5pm and go onstage at 7.30pm,we still rocked though!!I guess you become conditioned to put everything into that 30mins everynight and the day revolves around that whether you realise it or not,I guess dave lee roth was right!
And today here we are in jackson,no sign of any gin-soaked barroom queens unfortunately.We are beside the beach and its as warm as an irish summer,I hope its snowing when I go home!!!!Anyway we have 2 more shows to go,1 in fort lauderdale and one in tampa,then we will fly home for xmas!!!I guess we are just about ready to go home for a few days though Im sure im gonna wake up in the middle of the night,grab my guitar and wonder what time we are onstage and think damn im at home!!But sure we will be back to do it all over again in january!!If I don’t put anymore blogs before I go home I would just like to say Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to everyone!Thanks for all your support and looking forward to seein all our friends old and new next year and playing everyday demons for y’all!
Cheers,
Paul…

Written and directed by Rob Stefaniuk, Suck is a rock’n’roll vampire comedy about a group of musical wannabees in search of immortality and a record deal. The rock band The Winners have sunk so low, they will do anything to make it big. After a life-changing encounter with a vampire, they rocket to stardom only to discover that fame and fortune are not all they’re cracked up to be.

Stefaniuk (Phil the Alien) stars as the lead singer of The Winners, Paré (The Trotsky, Wicker Park) plays bass and is the first bandmember to succumb to blood lust, McDowell (Heroes, Cockwork Orange) plays a vampire hunter who is afraid of the dark with Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) as the band’s manager. Coates plays the vampire who converts the band, Pope, a club manager, Rollins, a radio show host, and Moby, the lead singer in the rock band—Secretaries of Steak. Iggy Pop plays a music producer and Calico Cooper, a bar maid alongside Alice Cooper who plays a sinister bartender who haunts the lead singer.

The film features 11 original songs. Stefaniuk collaborated with John Kastner (The Doughboys, Asexual, Phil the Alien) on seven tracks, described as 70’s Glam Rock with a gothic edge, recorded in Los Angeles and Montreal prior to filming. Other contributions came from Ivan Doroshuk (Men Without Hats) and Dimitri Coates (Burning Brides).

Suck is being produced by Capri Vision Inc. a division of Capri Films, whose mandate is to produce commercially viable films aimed at a demographic of teens and young adults. It is part of a mentorship program where experienced professionals work side by side with talented, emerging filmmakers.

Alice Cooper and 93.3 KDKB present the 8th annual Alice Cooper’s Christmas Pudding, a Christmas-themed variety show, famous for being an entertaining blend of comedy, music, dance and surprise performances.

The event will take place at the Dodge Theatre on Saturday, December 13, 2008 at 7:30 pm. More than 3,500 people are expected to attend.

The annual Christmas Pudding is a chance for music and entertainment fans of all kinds, to celebrate the holiday season with Alice Cooper, family and friends as Alice Cooper, along with his touring band, performs the entire smash album, Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits.

This year’s acts also include Bob Welch (formerly of FLEETWOOD MAC),Roger Clyne and the PEACEMAKERS, F5 (featuring former MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson), RUNAWAY PHOENIX, Les Stroud and WHISKY FALLS.

“Although I have played more than 70 shows this year, Pudding is the one I look forward to most,” said Cooper. “We love bringing people together for Christmas, for the sake of music and the mission of Solid Rock.”

Special guest and Iron Chef America winner, Mark Tarbell, will help to inspire the holiday spirit by whipping up a special batch of Christmas pudding for all attendees. Additionally, winners of this year’s Proof is in the Pudding, Arizona’s own version of American Idol, will also be on hand to show off their talents.

Tickets range from $33 to $63 for general admission and $203 for VIP seating, which includes a seat at one of the cabaret type tables in front of the stage, an artist attended pre-show reception, as well as a pre-show dinner. All proceeds from the event will benefit Solid Rock whose mission is to make an everlasting difference in the lives of children and teens throughout our community. Tickets are available at LiveNation.com. For more information, please visit AlicePudding.com

About Solid Rock:
Solid Rock is a Christian, 501 (c)(3) non-profit Arizona corporation founded by long time Valley residents and fathers, Chuck Savale and Alice Cooper. The two envisioned a teen center that provided an outlet where teens can flourish, understand themselves, understand the love of Christ and equip themselves for the road ahead. Thus, the idea of The Rock was born and the primary mission of Solid Rock was realized. Today, Solid Rock’s focus is to honor Christ by seeing The Rock come to fruition in Phoenix, and then create a series of “Rocks” in large metropolitan areas across the nation. For more information, click here or call 602-522-9200 or (888) 97-Alice (25423).

Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, and Henry Rollins are all set to star in a rock n’ roll vampire film titled “SUCK” from writer, actor, director Rob Stefaniuk . The film is set around Eddie Van Helsing hunting down a band of rockstar wannabe vampires. Also set to star along side the rock n’ roll legends are Jessica Pare and Malcolm McDowell, of Halloween and Heroes fame, and Stefaniuk himself who is no stranger to working with rock stars as he was the voice of Bobby “Buzz” Sawchuck on Gene Simmon’s “My Dad The Rockstar” which ran from 2004 to 2006 on Nicktoons. No release date has been set for the film.

Both GWAR and Marilyn Manson have covered some popular tunes over the years. In the spirit of Halloween, the Video Showdown this week puts GWAR’s cover of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” against Marilyn Manson’s cover of the Soft Cell classic, “Tainted Love”.

Alice Cooper has released a new ten minute video that combines the songs, “Vengeance is Mine”, “(In Touch With)”, “Your Feminine Side”, and “Killed by Love”, from the new Alice Cooper CD, Along Came A Spider.

Quite honestly, after listening to the Judas Priest debacle called Nostradamus, I was not looking forward to hearing another concept album in 2008. Nonetheless, Alice Cooper has unleashed his latest batch of hard rock horror in the form of a concept album. The difference between this and Nostradamus is quite simple, this album has good songs, and a whole bunch of them to boot.

The songs on Along Came A Spider follow the story of the serial killer named Spider. I wont give up all of the secrets of the story of Spider, but this is pretty good song material. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an Alice Cooper CD this much.

The sounds on Along Came A Spider is a pretty good balance of 70’s era Alice Cooper mixed with 80’s and 90’s style rock. Kerri Kelli and Jason Hook handle the guitar work, and they do an excellent job. The production quality on this disc is fantastic. Alice also enlists the help of a couple of friends on this disc. Slash cuts loose playing guitar on the track “Vengeance is Mine“. Ozzy Osbourne helped Alice write the tune “Wake The Dead“. Ozzy handles the harmonica solo on this song. There is no mention of Ozzy singing on this album, but If you listen closely enough, you can hear what appears to be his background vocals on this tune.

I must admit that some of Alice Cooper’s releases have always been a bit hit or miss with me. I had low expectations for Along Came A Spider. With that being said, this disc is one of the nice surprises of 2008. This is one of my favorite discs so far this year. I had a lot of fun listening to this, and I think you will too.

Today is the last day for early bird ticket prices $99 for general admission.
After today the price for general admissions jumps to $125. Rock the Bayou will take place August 29th – September 1st in Houston, Texas

For his new concept album, “Along Came a Spider,” Alice Cooper wanted to create a serial killer people could, well, like.

“It’s very easy to pull for a fictitious serial killer, a Hannibal Lecter or a Jason Voorhees,” says Cooper. The album, due July 29, introduces us to Spider, who wraps his victims in silk that matches their eye colors and cuts off one of their legs to create his own arachnoid appendage. “I don’t think anyone was ever cheering for Ted Bundy or Richard Speck or anything like that, but when it’s a fictitious serial killer, you can get behind him.

“I think (Spider)’s got a romantic sense. He’s got a sense of humor. I think in the end you kind of like him. You have somebody you could actually listen to and go, ‘I like this guy…’ ”

Cooper co-produced “Along Came a Spider” with Danny Saber and Greg Hampton, with the 11 tracks played by his touring band. Slash contributes guitar on “Vengeance is Mine,” while “Wake the Dead” is a co-write with Ozzy Osbourne. Listeners should brace for a plot twist that the singer calls “very Alice Cooper.”

Cooper, whose previous conceptual epics include “Welcome to My Nightmare,” “From the Inside” and “The Last Temptation,” is planning a full-fledged stage show to support “Along Came a Spider” but won’t have it on the road until 2009. “Right now I’ve got people that are drawing things up,” says Cooper, who’d also like to offer a visual treatment of the album with different horror directors creating videos for each song. “We’ve started thinking about, ‘What can we do to make this really interesting and what new things can we do with the stage?’ I gonna definitely create a new way for Alice to die, something nobody’s seen.

“A lot of clever minds out there are working on it,” he continues. “It’s weird to be working on a show for a year from now, but at the same time I can at least give myself a good head start.”

Cooper plans to play some of the new songs songs when his Psychodrama tour’s North American leg begins July 31 in Redmond, Ore.

Think of every song you air guitared to in school (but in the privacy of your own bedroom of course), every power ballad that you sang at the top of your lungs, but would never publicly admit that you liked and pile them into a 9-CD, 2 DVD, 152 track box set. Hard and Heavy features the hardest and
heaviest hits (along with a few guilty pleasures) from the best and most over the top rockers from the 70¹s and 80¹s including Poison, Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Heart and Kiss. The set also includes four EXCLUSIVE, never-before-seen, acoustic performances by Poison front man Bret Michaels.

Sound good? I think so too! You can submit your name to win a copy at the link below!

I started compiling the following list of New releases for 2008. This may not be a complete list, but so much great new music has arrived in 2008, so far, I though it would be a good idea to keep a running tab of what has come out, and what is on the way. The releases through August have been confirmed. Releases with a question mark have not been confirmed yet. This list will be updated as more news arrives.

According to Amazon.com, Alice Cooper’s new CD, Along Came A Spider will be released on July 29th. No song previews are available yet through Amazon. You can hear the song, Vengeance is Mine through the Alice Cooper myspace page.

The track listing is as follows:
1. Catch Me
2. Hungry
3. I Am The Spider
4. I Know Where You Live
5. (In Touch With) Your Feminine Side
6. Killed By Love
7. Salvation
8. The One That Got Away
9. Vengeance Is Mine
10. Wake The Dead
11. Wrapped In Silk

Jani Lane’s side project has finally seen the light of day, and has been released by Warrior Records. The timing of this release is kind of odd, with Jani recently reuniting with his former band, Warrant.

Nonetheless, The Saints of the Underground new disc is here, and I believe that this is Jani Lane’s most solid effort since the Warrant CD, Dog Eat Dog from 1992.

On this disc, you get two cover songs and eight original tunes. The first is American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. SOTU has increased the tempo on this song by a half step or so, and I like their version quite a bit, although it is very true to the original.

The second cover song is Moonlight Mile by the Rolling Stones. I didn’t really care for the Stones’ version of this song, and SOTU didn’t do anything to improve upon it. Their version is o.k. but It seems like an odd song for them to cover, especially when the Rolling Stones have so many great upbeat songs in their catalog.

The opening track, Dead Man Shoes sounds like a lost Warrant hit from the early 90’s. I like this tune a lot. Tomorrow Never Comes is another solid tune, and a good follow up to keep the pace going on this record. Good Times has a decent intro, which gave me high hopes for this song. It is a mid tempo number that came across as semi-average tune. It took a few listens for me to get into this tune more. I wish they would have made this one a little heavier, but it is, what it is.

The song Exit, didn’t really excite me too much. This sounds like an extra tune that was cut off of a Warrant album.Just when I was starting to lose faith in this record, Signs of Life came at exactly the right time. This tune has a heavier edge that some of the other songs on this record are lacking. It is a cool tune.

Bobby Blotzer’s drums stand out a little more to me, on the tune Bruised. I like the music on this tune, a lot more than the lyrics. Jimmy is a solid closer for this album. This song has a guitar lick that reminds me a whole lot of some old Thin Lizzy tunes.

All in All, Saints of the Underground have released a pretty good CD for the most part. Their are a couple of weak spots, but there are great songs here too.

Warrant and Jani Lane fans will eat this record up! For more information on Saints of the Underground, and to preview six of the songs from Love the Sin, Hate the Sinner, please visit the SOTU myspace page.

Rating:Out of 10

Track Listing:
1. Dead Man Shoes
2. Tomorrow Never Comes
3. All in How You Wear It
4. Good Times
5. Exit
6. American Girl
7. Signs of Life
8. Bruised
9. Moonlight Mile
10. Jimmy

A music business that enjoys increasing sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games, is already hearing significant buzz about S.O.T.U.’s premiere effort — written and produced by Jani, Bobby, and Keri — which features tracks such as “Dead Man Shoes,” “All in How You Wear It,” “Signs of Life,” as well as a mesmerizing take on the Stones classic, “Moonlight Mile.”

“With more than six decades of combined experience, S.O.T.U. represents classic hard rock with current elements of today’s rock genre,” said Kelli.

The band came about, as so many bands do, unexpectedly. The four musicians were covering tunes together for fun during down time from their other bands — and what do you know, chemistry called and they evolved into a creative partnership that started to turn out original songs.

“For me, S.O.T.U. was like when a Monty Python skit stops abruptly and you hear a voice over say, ‘and now for something completely different,'” said Lane. “I was in a very slow and boring rut when I got a call from the guys. It really got the creative juices flowing again … and some other juices too!”

S.O.T.U. laid down drums and bass tracks at Blotzer’s Diamond Recording Studios in Texas, and then overdubbed guitars and vocals at Kelli’s studio in California.

Alice Cooper is in the news again with word that he has signed with German record label Steamhammer/SPV.

Cooper is currently working on his new album, “Along Came A Spider,” which is scheduled for release sometime in the fall. Currently, Cooper is taking a break from the recording studio to perform in Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Later on this year the venerable shock rocker will embark on another tour which will take him to various locations in the U.S., Canada and Europe. There’s little doubt that Alice Cooper is a busy man.

Tobias Sammet is back on track with AVANTASIA! After five years of Silence, the EDGUY mastermind decided to reanimate his very own project AVANTASIA and record a follow up to the highly appraised Metal Opera, that Tobi released in 2001 (Part 1) and 2002 (Part 2). For many people, this Metal Opera was the inofficial but worthy successor to Helloweens “Keeper Of The Seven Keys” Pt. 1 and Pt. 2.

His new project, the album “The Scarecrow” is maybe the most ambitious that Tobi ever touched. Just read the list of participants and your knees will tremble: Eric Singer from KISS on drums and vocals, Guest Vocals by Amanda Somverville, Jorn Lande, Alice Cooper, Michael Kiske, Bob Catley and Guest Guitar parts by Rudolf Schenker. A legendary combination!

As an appetizer, two EPs are on their way, before the album will crush the metal world in early 2008. “Lost In Space” is the title track of both EPs, but otherwise the content is completely different and exclusive. Except for one song and title track, none of them will appear on the “The Scarecrow”! Value for money – for sure!

“Lost In Space” is without doubt among the catchiest tunes, that you will get to hear in 2007! A good time rock´n´roll song with a chorus as huge as two continets. Impressive – after the first spin, you will never ever get this song out of your head. And thats good!

With this new era of AVANTASIA, Tobi offers everything from Hard Rock, Stadium Rock, Rock´n´Roll, New Rock to Melodic metal and even Speed Metal – stuff to dream too, stuff to bang your head too.